This lament for King Ricartz Còr de Leó, known in English as Richard Lionheart, was composed in 1199 when Ricartz died. (Thread...) 
Specifically, he died of an infected wound during an incident involving a crossbow, a pissed-off teenager, and a field medic who, as Aufretz l'Estranhs put it, was:
"com uns surgentz obrant
per prima vetz trencant "
(like a surgeon cutting for the very first time.)
"com uns surgentz obrant
per prima vetz trencant "
(like a surgeon cutting for the very first time.)
Though born in England, famous in popular memory as King Richard I of England and played on screen by Sean Connery, there is little evidence that King Ricartz spoke English.
He might just have learned some from his wetnurse Hodierna, but apart from that it is unlikely he heard it very often growing up. Two songs by Richard himself have survived. One is a satire in Occitan.
The other, a plea for aid while being held for tremendous ransom, exists in both Occitan and French versions. Unusually, neither version appears to be clearly derived from the other, and it is very possible that Richard composed both.
And it is in Occitan — the native speech of the dead king's mother Eleanor — that Gaucelm Faidit dirges Ricartz in this song here.
There are 18 different attestations of this song. Four have the melody preserved. Yet another six instances of the melody are found contrafacted to different lyrics.
Unusually for a melody with such robust attestation, the different written versions of the tune resemble one another fairly closely in most respects.
The conclusion to be drawn from this is, I think, that the poem and its melody went down extremely well with audiences, and stuck in the mind.
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